Chapter 3 - Piper
A colossal force collided with the ship, throwing Piper out of bed, rolling into the side of her nightstand. Katoptris went skittering off the side of the shelf, sliding along the floor, almost disappearing under her dresser, but not before Piper grabbed it. Getting unsteadily to her feet, she was nearly thrown forward into her wall as something slammed the Argo II from behind, rocking the vessel back and forth.
Monsters? Piper was sure of it. But she couldn't hear the usual creaking of Festus from above, or the sound of the alarm bells going off. She looked into Katoptris, hoping in vain it would show her what was going on above deck. The blade shimmered once, then the bronze metal melted away displaying an image of the Argo II. Piper exhaled. Usually the knife only showed her the future, not the present. But she couldn't complain. She expected to see some deranged sea monster attacking the ship, or a swarm of Telchines bursting from the waters. What she saw made her stare at the blade in utter shock.
Two half-bloods were flying around, one propelled by the force of the water, the other riding the winds. Percy and Jason, fighting...?
As Piper watched, Jason sent a small wind storm at Percy, but Percy morphed a small watery shield directly in front of him, protecting him from the strike, deflecting the tiny squall, sending it spiraling into the hull of the Argo II. Just as Piper watched it careen into the ship's side, a great force sent Piper flying off her heels. Fortunately, she landed on her bed, but it was still enough to make her stomach twist itself into knots. Now she knew what it felt like to be Hazel.
As if on cue, she heard the unmistakable noise of someone throwing up in the room next to her. Poor Hazel. Piper threw open her cabin door, and the first thing she saw was Leo stumbling around the hallway spluttering, "Ship... attack... monsters... I hate WATER!" His hands kept trying to ignite, but a jet of ocean spray came shooting down the hallway from the upper deck. Piper ducked back into the safety of her bedroom, just as she heard an outraged chocking noise coming from Leo, followed by the sound of a body crashing into the opposite wall.
Piper came back out of her cabin room to find Leo at the end of the hallway, his butt plastered to the wall, his feet sticking up in the air, his doused hands smoking. The doorway opposite of her flew open, and Annabeth stumbled out, her hand clutching her ivory sword, her gray eyes darting about. "Who's attacking us?" she demanded.
"It's not monsters," Piper assured her, showing her Katoptris. Annabeth looked at the knife for a second, then her shoulders relaxed, and she shook her head in disbelief. "I am going to kill him..."
Piper followed her, and the two girls came above deck just as Jason streaked by, riding the winds, Percy right on his heels. Percy leaped off his personal tsunami, sailed through the air for a second over Piper and Annabeth, clearing the entire bulk of the Argo II, then summoned another tidal wave on the other side landing on its mass like an acrobat as he pursued Jason around the hull as if he were some sort of Aqua Spiderman.
"Are they fighting?" Piper gasped, thinking back to their visit in Kansas when the Eidolons possessed Percy and Jason turning them upon each other. Then she saw the grin on Jason's face, and she could hear Percy laughing above the howling of the wind.
"Gods, they're behaving like children..." Annabeth huffed. She dropped her sword and marched to the end of the deck. "Perseus Jackson, Jason Grace, you two get down here right this instant!"
Piper had to suppress a laugh. When Annabeth got angry, you did not want to cross her, but seeing her behave like a scolding mother...
Piper joined her at the railing. The boys weren't listening, continuing their aerial war games as if they had all the time in the world. Hazel came stumbling onto the deck, her face greener than Guacamole. Frank and Leo followed, Leo dripping wet, his black curls stuck to his forehead.
"Let's shake things up," Piper said. She waited until the boys were directly overhead. As they made another pass over the ship, Percy lobbing waterballs at Jason, and Jason deflecting them with the wind, Piper shouted, "Jason, look out! There's a sea monster beneath you!" She poured a great amount of charmspeak into her words, and this caused her momentary distraction.
"Huh?" Jason looked down, and Percy got in a lucky shot, hurling his waterball into Jason's back, sending the son of Jupiter spiraling into the water. Percy raised his arms triumphantly, but only before Piper then called out, "Percy, your pants fell down!"
"What?!" Percy fumbled at the back of his jeans, and lost his mental grip on his personal tsunami. It crashed into the Argo II, sea water spraying over the deck and soaking everyone from head to toe, and sending Percy Jackson flipping head over heels straight in the sail's netting above. He got tangled in the webbing of the ropes, and hung suspended above the deck, his eyes rolling into his head. "Ugghh...." he muttered.
Jason shot out of the water, landing on the deck, walking lopsidedly across the boards as he was completely drenched from head to toe, his clothes heavy with sea water. "Un-called for..." he muttered at Piper.
"Are you kidding me?" Piper retorted, punching Jason in the arm. "You nearly gave us all a heart attack! We thought we were being attacked! Plus, no one likes to be woken up by being thrown into the side of her wall."
Jason winced, a sheepish grin curling at his mouth. "Yeah, about that..." he looked up at where Percy dangled from the ship's netting. He pointed in dramatic accusation. "It was Percy's fault!"
"Say what?!" Percy spluttered. "Hold up there, Grace–" he fumbled with the knots in the rope for a second, yanking them apart, then suddenly realized his stupid mistake. The son of Poseidon dropped from the mast, plummeting towards the deck.
Annabeth sighed in exasperation. She glanced at Jason. "I know you two were just locked in a 'ferocious battle' a second ago, but would you mind saving him for me?"
Jason pointed at the deck just below Percy's descent. A tiny pocket of air materialized on the deck, catching Percy just before he ended up as a grease spot on the ground, and deposited him in a crumpled heap right at Annabeth's feet.
Annabeth slowly bent over, hands on her hips as she glared down at Percy.
Percy looked up, a guilty smile spreading across his face. "Uh... hey there Annabeth. Sleep well?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes, glaring up at the sky as if thinking, how in the name of Zeus did I fall for this guy?
Bending down, she grabbed Percy's ear, slowly hauling him to his feet. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..." Percy muttered as he slowly rose.
"Dry us off," Annabeth ordered, her eyes softening, a hint of amusement beginning to show itself within her features. "Now."
Percy shook himself, cursing as he batted at his ear, as if thinking he'd be able to brush off the stinging pain by swiping at it.
Boys...
"Whatever you say, your highness," he grumbled, touching Annabeth's shoulder lightly, instantly drying her from head to toe, her clothes lightening, her dripping hair regaining its long golden curls.
Going from demigod to demigod, Percy dried them off one by one. "I was only trying give Jason some encouragement," he said as he dried Frank.
"By fighting him...?" Piper said, folding her arms.
Percy paused to look at her. "Yes, exactly like that, beauty queen," he said sarcastically, then walked over and touched her shoulder, relieving the water from her clothes. "No, before he and I started... 'fighting'." He made quotation marks with his fingers as he said the word, fighting.
"I just had a lot on my mind is all," Jason confessed as Percy touched his shoulder, drying him off. "I needed some air and apparently, so did Percy. We had a brief conversation, and then we just suddenly decided to start ruff-housing." He glared kiddingly at Percy as he walked over to Hazel. "Or you did, actually."
Percy snorted as he dried Hazel. "I was only trying to refresh you! You seemed to need a shower anyway. You're the one who launched me into the air like a missile."
"Aye, touché," Jason remarked.
Percy dried Leo last. "Anyway, I'm sorry if we kinda... sorta caused an uproar..."
"'Kinda'?" Annabeth demanded.
"'Sorta'?" Piper snapped.
Percy held up his hands in surrender. "Okay! Okay! 'Really' caused an uproar. We're sorry; alright?"
"Hephaestus's beard, no!" Leo snapped. "You nearly destroyed my ship! Festus just reported some minor cracks in the lower decks, and now water's pouring in!"
"That's what you call a problem, Leo?" Percy asked, raising an eye brow.
"And some of the oars snapped when one of your waterballs pushed the ship against a small reef!"
"Easily replaceable," Percy said.
"And, I need to replace the now frayed mast netting, you of course managed to destroy!"
"I think you are overreacting, Captain Valdez."
"Bah!" Leo hurled a bolt of flames at Percy and set his pants on fire.
With a strangled yelp, Percy jumped overboard, plunging into the sea, dousing the flames, but not before making a total fool of himself in front of the entire crew. When he surfaced, he looked up and saw everyone laughing on board.
Piper was holding back tears. "Alright, that was pretty good payback! Nice work, Leo."
Leo twirled his hand gracefully, giving a 360 degree bow, tipping off an imaginary top hat.
"Now we just need to figure something out for Grace, over here." Piper turned, giving Jason a wicked grin.
Jason paled. "Oh Hades, no..." He backed up. The remaining five demigods turned towards him, malicious smiles showing on their faces.
"Run Jason!" Percy called from where he floated in the water.
"See ya'!" Jason took to the sky.
"I'll get him!" Frank turned into a giant eagle and streaked after him in pursuit, the other half-bloods urging him on.
Percy leaped back onto the deck, laughing alongside the others as they watched Frank chase Jason through the air. "Holy Zeus, what is it with everyone and Pick on Jason Day?!" Jason cried as he swooped over their heads, Frank hot on his tail.
For a moment, everything was peaceful. The sun was shining above. No monsters had attacked them for quite some time now, and for once Piper felt a surge of happiness as she stood alongside her friends, enjoying a quiet morning out at sea. But the feeling was gone as soon as it came.
Festus started whirring and creaking, alerting Leo to the controls.
The demigods fell silent as Leo ran to the helm, Jason and Frank still chasing each other, but entirely forgotten.
"What is it, Leo?" Annabeth called. "Monsters?"
Leo stopped at the controls, his hands flying over the panels and buttons, his eyes scanning the radar. "No," he said, finally looking up. "Much worse."
Jason and Frank landed on the deck, apparently noticing something was wrong.
Leo swallowed. "A Titan is approaching us."
So, what did you all think of Chapter 3? I'm not getting any reviews people! I'd like to know what you think of my story so far! But again, please don't comment anything rude. It doesn't make me feel good, and just ruins my inspiration to keep going. No one likes to be insulted about their work.
I'm really enjoying this so far! Even though none of this is mine, I like to create my own interpretations of what this book will be like when it comes out in October! Gods, that month seems so far away.
Again, reviews are deeply appreciated. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!
Until next time!